


Cats Are The Best Icebreaker

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Dancer Yuri, Figure Skater Otabek, High School AU, M/M, Referenced Bullying, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-23 09:50:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12504668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Yuri Plisetsky is a dancer.  He's proud of it, but he gets in enough trouble at school without having to fight assholes over his "girly" profession.  He keeps it quiet, and keeps to himself.Otabek Altin is a skater.  He thought everyone at school knew that - after all, no one else got to miss entire weeks of school for no reason.  He's also got a reputation as the scariest person in school.He was a punk, he did ballet.  What more can I say?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on an AU by Tumblr user [@origami-teacup](https://origami-teacup.tumblr.com/post/145246967054/one-cannot-have-enough-of-cute-and-random-aus-so)
> 
> “You’re the one in class who has tattoos all over their arms and piercings and everybody’s scared of you and one day I catch you watching cat videos and doodling in the middle of a lecture and wow you’re a dork” AU.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek's laughter gets Yuri's attention. They bond over cats and secrets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Yuri Plisetsky Week Day 3 - AU. Originally posted as part of Yuri Plisetsky Week; moved to its own fic now that I'm expanding on it with Otabek week! <3

Everyone in school was scared of Otabek Altin. For one thing, he was a little older than everyone else, having started school late. For another, he rode a Harley to school, and dressed the part. Black leather jacket, jeans, boots, undercut with the top grown out long enough to put in a ponytail. When it was warm, he’d leave the jacket in his locker, and his T-shirts (or if it was really hot, tank tops) did very little to hide the muscles – or the tattoos. Both arms were covered shoulder to elbow in colorful designs.

Yuri wasn’t scared of him, exactly. Intimidated, sure. He looked scary, never spoke to anyone, if a teacher called on him he’d answer in as few words as he could. Yuri couldn’t help being attracted to him, too.

Today in government, the teacher was out, and both Yuri and Otabek had finished the work he’d left in ten minutes. The sub didn’t seem to care what they did, as long as they were quiet, so Yuri headed for the back of the room and got out his phone. The sub would probably be mad if he started dancing, but he could watch the videos and make a note of what to work on when he went to Lilia’s after school.

He heard snickering next to him and looked over to see Otabek with a hand over his mouth, trying to keep quiet. Otabek noticed the staring and turned his phone so Yuri could see. Yuri’s eyes went wide when he saw what Otabek was watching – a kitten pouncing on a dog’s tail, and the dog just sitting there and occasionally twitching its tail to amuse the kitten.

Otabek had autoplay on. The next video had a kitten riding on the back of a turtle as it wandered around the house. Yuri grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled a note. “You like cat videos?”

Otabek took the paper. “Yes.” He doodled a cat next to the word.

“Do you like real cats?”

“Yes.” Another cat doodle, this one with a label reading “Queen Tunabreath the Third”.

“The third?”

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask my sister. She named her. She was three at the time. Maybe that’s why.”

Yuri tried and failed to hide the laugh. The sub looked back at them and put a finger to her lips. Yuri did a very bad doodle that he labeled “Princess”.

“So we both have royal cats.”

“Is there any such thing as a cat who isn’t royal?”

“Sure. Some of them are gods.”

This time, Yuri managed to control the laughter, but his shoulders shook. “What’s with your tattoos?”

“Ask me again after school when we can talk. I can’t point to things and write at the same time.”

Yuri stared at the paper. Talk to Otabek? Like, actually talk? He wasn’t quite sure he could do that. “Okay. Are you gonna get your lower arms done too?”

“No. My coach hates that I have as much as I do. He makes me cover them for performances.”

“Coach? Performance?”

“You didn’t know? I’m a competitive figure skater. That’s why I miss so much school.”

Yuri stared at Otabek in shock. He tried to reconcile the bad boy he knew with the grace and elegance he associated with figure skating, and it was not working. Otabek sighed and ended the cat video playlist, instead putting on a video of himself skating. Yuri looked at the title, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. He grabbed the paper. “YOU COMPETE AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL????”

“Yeah. International, too, this year. Next month I’m going to Four Continents.”

“Which four?”

“All of them but Europe. Europe does their own championship.”

“Isn’t that five continents? Unless Antarctica decides to send some penguins...”

Otabek bit his lip, holding in a laugh. “Ice-skating penguins. I’d like to see that. They count North and South America as one.”

“Holy shit. How did no one here know this?”

“I don’t know. I just assumed everyone knew.”

“Nope. Now, me, I deliberately hide my thing.”

“Your thing?”

“I do ballet. Like, serious high-level my teacher used to dance for the Bolshoi which is a huge deal ballet. When I graduate I’m going pro.”

“Why hide that? That’s amazing.”

“Because I hate being called a ballerina. Or a girl. My old school, the bullying got so bad I moved halfway across the country to escape.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.”

“I wish I looked more like you. No one would mess with you if they found out about your skating, even if they were the kind of idiot who thinks anything pretty like this is girly.”

“It’s useful for that, but I wish I looked more like you. The judges expect grace and flexibility, and that’s not me.”

Yuri gave Otabek his own phone. “This is rehearsal, not an actual performance, but still.”

“Wow.” Otabek watched, thoroughly focused on the tiny screen. “Do you perform?”

“Yeah. School shows mostly, although I’ve done some bigger productions in summer. Our next show opens in three weeks. We’re doing Romeo and Juliet.”

“Is the ballet better than the play?”

“Obviously. It’s got dancing.” Otabek snorted. “The story isn’t. I’m playing Romeo.”

They spent the rest of the class period watching videos of each other. When the bell rang, Otabek held out a hand to Yuri. “Friends?”

“Yeah, sure.” Yuri shook Otabek’s hand.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek wasn't sure Yuri would show up, but he did. To ask about the tattoos. Otabek explains some of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for Otabek Week Day 2: Hero of Kazakhstan | Bekabear.

Dariya said Otabek was overcompensating. He could see her point – his image off the ice screamed antisocial punk, and enough people believed it to keep anyone from messing with him. The way he carried himself made people forget how short he was, and he dressed to emphasize the muscles he did have, which hid the fact that he wasn’t exactly a bodybuilder. The one time he had actually gotten into a fight, he won it thoroughly enough that people mostly left him alone after that. In a sense, maybe he was antisocial. He had his friends at the rink; he didn’t care what his classmates thought of him as long as they weren’t picking on him.

When he caught someone starting at him as he snickered at a playful kitten, his first instinct was to look up at him with what JJ called his “resting bitch face.” It was nearly always effective at getting rid of unwanted attention. Then he realized who it was. Yuri Plisetsky was the one kid at school Otabek thought might be worth getting to know. He said a quick wish that Yuri liked cats and turned his phone so they could both watch. It worked. Instead of outing Otabek as a closet dork, Yuri started talking to him. Well, writing notes to him, to avoid the wrath of the almighty sub.

He really had assumed that people knew he was a competitive skater. Yuri seemed to genuinely appreciate his skating, and revealed his own secret to Otabek – he was a ballet dancer. He didn’t need to see the video Yuri pulled up to envision it – Yuri had his own way of dressing to emphasize his graceful figure, with tight pants showing off his leg muscles and the bulky coats masking his slender frame. The videos just confirmed that Yuri was very good.

After meeting Yuri, Otabek’s last two classes took forever. The teachers made him dock his phone, so he couldn’t watch more videos of cats or Yuri, which left him a lot of time to think about how to ask Yuri if he’d like a ride to ballet practice that afternoon. Even with all that time, he couldn’t come up with anything.

Thankfully, his failure to come up with something cool didn’t matter. Yuri was waiting for him when he got to his locker. “You said to ask you about your tattoos after school. It’s after school.”

They got some odd looks when Otabek smiled. “When do you have to be somewhere?”

“Four-thirty, and it’s a thirty-minute walk.”

That gave them about fifteen minutes. Which was okay, but could be better. “Any idea how long it would take on my bike?”

Yuri’s eyes lit up momentarily. “Probably five to ten minutes, depending on traffic. Why?”

“If you’d like I can give you a ride. I promise I’m a good driver.”

The light came back, and this time, it stayed in Yuri’s eyes. “You’ll let me ride on your motorcycle? Cool!” Yuri didn’t hesitate as Otabek led the way.

When they got out to the bike, Otabek took off his jacket and pushed up the sleeves of his T-shirt. “Some of these are just to fill space, but a lot of them have some meaning to me. For example, the sun, here.” Otabek pointed to a bright yellow sun on a turquoise background in a central position on his left bicep. “That’s a national symbol of Kazakhstan. I may be living in America, but I’m Kazakhstani, and I represent Kazakhstan when I skate.”

“I thought your accent sounded kind of like a Russian one.”

“It is, sort of, I guess. My dad’s got family in Russia that don’t speak Kazakh, so he made sure we learned Russian when we were kids. We left Kazakhstan when I was young enough that I can mostly pass for American or Canadian.” Otabek’s fingers slid up closer to his shoulder. “The bear here is kind of a joke. Fans throw stuffed animals to skaters, and they have sweepers to collect them for us but we’ll usually pick up one or two. I didn’t do it on purpose, but I picked up bears frequently enough that now that’s pretty much all that gets thrown to me.”

Yuri chuckled and looked closer. “What’s with the blond riding the bear?”

“That’s the joke part. It was my sister’s idea. Because of the bear thing, my fans started talking about Otabear sightings – me carrying a bear, or a bear wearing one of my costumes. Then someone realized what they were saying. Ota means father in Uzbek, so I got the nickname Papa Bear.”

It took Yuri a minute. Then he doubled over with laughter and his eyes teared up from it. “So you got Goldilocks tattooed on your bear.”

Otabek couldn’t help smiling at how amused Yuri was. “My little sister’s idea,” he reminded Yuri.

“That’s awesome.”

“She’s awesome.” Otabek moved his fingers to a series of flowers in a ring just above his elbow. “The tulips represent my family members. My mom’s light pink, dad’s red, older brother is yellow, older sister is dark pink, I’m orange, and little sister is purple.”

“Nice.” Yuri reached up and touched something on Otabek’s right arm and he scowled. Uh-oh. “The skates make sense, but is there a reason they’re shredding ballet shoes?”

Oh. That. Of course Yuri would object to that. “A lot of skaters take ballet lessons. I didn’t in Kazakhstan, but when we moved to Russia, I had to. I sucked, no matter what I tried, and I hated it so much. I love watching ballet and I have a lot of respect for the people who can do it, but I can’t. I had to find my own path to success in skating. At least it makes me distinctive.”

Yuri’s smile returned, and he slid his hand down Otabek’s arm. “What about this leopard? It’s gorgeous. I know you like cats, but is that all it is?”

“No, it’s another symbol of Kazakhstan. It’s a Kazakh snow leopard.” Otabek glanced at his phone. He was probably enjoying Yuri’s hand on his arm a little too much, so he reached for his jacket. “We should probably get going. If we’re going to lose track of time, you’re less likely to get in trouble if you’re not five minutes or more away.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek meets Lilia, who has a surprising request for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter written for Otabek Altin Week Day 4: DJ/Music

Neither Otabek nor Yuri were prepared when Lilia walked out of the studio and straight up to Otabek’s bike. Yuri checked his phone. “I’m not late, Lilia. I still have ten minutes.”

“I’m not here for you.” She fixed her gaze on Otabek. It was intense, but he’d dealt with worse.

Yuri stepped between them. “Why do you need to talk to Otabek? If you’re going to harass him for giving me a ride, _don’t_.”

“Yuri Nikolayevich Plisetsky. Are you questioning me?”

Yuri flinched, but recovered quickly, crossing his arms and glaring. “YES. I’m not going to let you harass my friend!”

Otabek slid off the bike and stood beside Yuri. “Yuri, don’t get in trouble over me. At least not until we know what your instructor wants with me. It could just be a warning to drive safely while you’re on my bike.”

A ghost of a smile appeared on Lilia’s face. “Do I need to tell you that?”

“No, ma’am, you don’t, but I’ve never known that to stop anyone.” He was a cautious driver when he was on his own, and the only passengers he’d take were those who would only make him more cautious. Friends and family were important to him.

The ghost faded, leaving a real smile. “All right. Since that’s not what I came out here for, we’ll not get into it, then.”

“Then what are you out here for?” Yuri asked.

Lilia’s smile vanished, and she glared at Yuri. “Behave yourself or go inside. This is nothing to do with you.”

Otabek and Yuri exchanged startled glances. “How can I help you, then?” Otabek said once he recovered from the surprise.

“I understand you arranged your own music for your free skate. I found it very interesting, and I went to your show last Friday.”

Otabek had no idea where to start. Yuri recovered first. “Your show? What does she mean, Otabek?”

“I DJ. Most Friday nights unless I’m away for competition, I perform at the Dragon.”

Yuri’s eyes lit up. “That is _so cool_.”

“Thanks.” Otabek smiled briefly before turning his attention back to Lilia. “I did arrange my free skate music, yes. You recognize me?”

“Yes. DJ Altin, Kazakhstan’s ice hero. I watch a great deal of figure skating, and your music caught my attention.”

“I’m not sure how to take that. As a DJ, I’m very flattered, but as a skater, I feel like I should be a little offended, too, if my music is the most memorable thing about my program.”

Lilia smiled again. “I’m a ballerina. I’m biased toward the more ballet-style skaters. I respect your skating for what it is, but it’s not my preference. Your music, on the other hand, very much is to my taste.”

“Really.” That was a surprise – although probably that was because Otabek was being ageist. There was no reason someone Lilia’s age couldn’t like electronic music. “Thank you.”

“This summer, for Yuri’s last show before going pro, I want to do something different. Something special. I suspect that he’d appreciate your style of music, so I’d like to ask you to arrange the music for it. I know from your free skate that you can work with this style of music.”

“What ballet? I’ll listen to the music and see what I can do with it.”

“Yakobson’s Spartacus.” Lilia handed Otabek a DVD. “The music has been used in two figure skating routines that I know of, if you want to watch those.”

“Huh. I’ll listen to this and let you know once I’ve made a decision.” Otabek tucked the DVD into his jacket pocket.

“Thank you. Yuri, take your time, come in when you’re ready to get to work.” Lilia walked off, leaving Yuri gaping in disbelief.

“See you at school tomorrow, I guess?” Otabek said.

“Yeah. I don’t care what Lilia said, if I’m late, she’s going to ream me out. Thanks for the ride.” Yuri turned to go, stopped, turned back, and gave Otabek a quick hug. He ran off before Otabek could respond, even to hug back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek and Yuri do the meet the family thing and the "Hey everyone's saying we're dating" thing.

Over the next weeks, Yuri and Otabek settled into an easy pattern. They ate lunch together, sat together in the classes they could, and after school, Otabek would take Yuri to the studio and hang out until he had to leave to get to skating practice. On Saturdays and Sundays, they’d meet up after practice and spend the rest of the day together.

The first weekend they were friends, Otabek found himself meeting Yuri’s grandfather. He was very grateful that he’d dressed nicely – he and Yuri were planning to go watch a professional ballet production of Swan Lake, so he was wearing a nice sweater and khakis instead of his usual T-shirt and jeans. Nikolai seemed a bit surprised to be meeting a friend of Yuri’s. For one thing, he was surprised to hear that Yuri had a friend.

Once they’d gotten to the cat café they were planning to hang out in until time to go to the ballet, Yuri laughed at Otabek for being so worried. “Grandpa’s so happy that I made a friend here that it wouldn’t have mattered if you weren’t wearing anything.”

"I don't know. I don't think your grandfather would approve of you bringing home a naked man."

Yuri smiled as a fluffy white cat settled into his lap, which gave him the excuse to look down and let his hair hide the slight blush Otabek could just barely see through the golden curtain. "Okay, maybe that was a bit exaggerated. Just a bit, though."

 

Otabek brought Yuri home to meet his family the next day, bringing him for Sunday dinner. He was really nervous about it – the last time someone had brought a friend for Sunday dinner, they’d ended up marrying him straight out of high school. He was sure there’d be teasing from his family, but Yuri wanted to come.

All through dinner, Otabek’s brothers and sisters took every opportunity to tease them both. At first, Yuri fought back valiantly, but as dinner went on, he became quieter. After dinner, Otabek’s mom told him that Dariya could do his share of the cleaning up for being so rude to Yuri, and he should go on and enjoy himself and take care of his guest. Dariya complained, but she was shut down thoroughly by both parents.

“I am so, so sorry about them,” Otabek said as soon as they were out by the motorcycle. “I asked them to behave, but…”

“They were fine. At least they seemed to respect my dancing, except for Dariya.”

Otabek snorted. “Oh, Dari respects it too, she’s starting at your school this summer. I don’t know why she was being such an ass tonight. She’s not one of those who thinks boys shouldn’t do ballet, I promise.”

 

After that, Dariya was perfectly friendly to Yuri any time they ran into each other, and Otabek never did figure out what her problem was that first time. Rumors started getting around school that Otabek and Yuri were dating, which neither Otabek nor Yuri minded a bit. Yuri started seeing red when he overheard some dumbass girl telling her friends that she’d heard that Otabek was taking advantage of Yuri and that poor Yuri might need an intervention to stop the abuse. Otabek managed to hold him back. “Ignore her. She’s just mad because I take you for rides on my motorcycle and I keep saying no when she asks.”

“Why should I ignore her? If a teacher heard her, you could get in serious trouble for no good reason!”

“I have some good character witnesses. You, your grandpa, Madame Baranovskaya, my coach.”

Yuri stopped struggling then, staring at Otabek in confusion. “Lilia doesn’t know you.”

“No, but she knows you. If she thought you were in a relationship that might become abusive, if it wasn’t already, she’d be keeping a sharp eye for warning signs. From what I’ve heard from you and Dariya, she’s very strict, but she’s fair.”

“Yeah. That’s about right.” Yuri shoved his hands in his pockets. “I don’t mind most of these people running their mouths. They don’t know us, and it’s not like dating you would be a bad thing at all. That was too far.”

“My parents are asking when I’m going to bring you around again. They seem to think I’m following Raya’s example and planning to marry you right after graduation.”

Yuri burst out laughing. “Wow. Your parents are kind of… who gets married after five months?”

“No idea. Not me.”

“So when are you planning on marrying me?” Yuri's eyes were full of mischief.

“I’m not planning… wait, that doesn’t exactly sound right either.” Otabek coughed and shook his head to clear it. “Call me old-fashioned, but I think that I should probably ask you out before I start planning to marry you.”

Yuri stuck his tongue out at Otabek. “Not if I ask you out first.”

“True.” That one, Otabek loved the sound of.

“So… rock paper scissors to decide who’s asking who out?” Yuri held out his hands ready to start the game.

“Or we could just agree that since we both want to ask, the other person saying yes is very likely, and say we’re dating next time we go do something together.” Yuri seemed to like that idea, as he threw his arms around Otabek.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Otabek skates, Yuri dances, and Yuri meets the bane of his existence.
> 
> Written for Otabek Altin Week Day 6: AU.

Otabek left for Four Continents not long after he and Yuri started dating. Before he left, he had something he needed to ask Yuri. “I don’t know if anyone will ask, but if they do, can I talk about my boyfriend or should I pull the silent stoic routine I always have before?”

“You can talk about me however you want to." Yuri stopped suddenly. "Speaking of, Lilia said to ask if you were competing in Worlds.”

Otabek shrugged. “I’m pretty much all Kazakhstan’s got for senior men’s singles. I’m going to Worlds.”

“Awesome!” Yuri hugged him. “Lilia said that if Romeo and Juliet goes well, and you were competing, she’d take me to watch.”

“That’s a lot of school to miss…” Otabek's was excused, since, after all, he was competing. Missing just to watch seemed iffy.

Yuri rolled his eyes. “Meh. I haven’t missed a day of school since starting high school. Part of the deal with Lilia. I miss school without a good excuse, she takes it out on me in practice, knocks me down a few points during auditions. I can afford to miss a week. Besides. It’s senior year. I've passed all my tests, except finals. By the end of March, no one cares.”

“Sounds good to me, then. We should have a good time.”

“School’s going to be boring without you while you’re gone to Four Continents. I might actually end up feeling a bit lonely.”

“I’m going to miss you, too.”

 

Otabek won the silver medal. Yuri watched the press conference afterward, and he was rather infuriated. The gold medalist, a Japanese guy, got a lot of questions. That made sense, he won, but Yuri did not care about whether this gold medal was good enough for him to marry his coach. The bronze medalist needed to shut his mouth. After the first time, Yuri went back and watched the press conference again. He counted. He heard “It’s JJ Style!” six times. Otabek only got a couple questions. One about Kazakhstan, one about if he thought he could medal at Worlds.

The second Otabek called, Yuri was ranting. “JJ needs to learn to shut up. I hate that guy.”

Otabek chuckled. “He’s not that bad once you get to know him. He loves the sound of his own voice and he is terrible at reading a room or another person, but he’s a decent guy. We used to be pretty good friends, back in Juniors, and we’ve stayed in contact since he went back to Canada.”

“Why’d they keep talking to him, though? You barely got anything!”

“I’ve got this silent, stoic thing going. At first it was just because I didn’t have a whole lot to say, and then it was since the media didn’t expect me to talk, they just stopped asking me questions. It’s fine, I’m used to it, and it’s better than being Katsuki. He loves to talk about Viktor, but I think even he was ready to hit the next reporter who asked about him instead of one of us.”

Yuri smiled at that. “Would you hate me if I said I liked his free skate better than yours?”

“Not at all. I like his free skate better than mine. Besides, he brings a lot of ballet into his performance, and you’d probably appreciate that.”

“What if I told you I kind of got…”

Otabek started laughing. “Katsuki’s short program?” Yuri nodded. “A lot of people have that problem. It’s fine.”

“Do you?” Yuri wasn't jealous. Just curious. Curious was okay, right?

“I did when I watched him in the Rostelecom Cup. I didn’t watch in the Grand Prix Finals or at Four Continents, I prefer to focus on myself and what I’m doing. You should see Christophe Giacometti’s short program, it’s way worse. I don’t like Chris much, though. He’s annoying.”

 

Otabek went to every show of Romeo and Juliet that Yuri performed in. He thought it was amazing, seeing Yuri dance like that. It was one thing to see him on video, but seeing him in person was something else altogether. The last show was the weekend before Otabek would leave for Worlds. Lilia gave him front-row tickets for himself and his family.

After the show, Lilia took the stage. She gave the usual thanks, and then asked Otabek to come up to the stage. “Our June performance will be a little different from the traditional ballets. Mr. Otabek Altin has agreed to arrange the music for a more modern sound, and I’m very excited based on what he’s done so far. Please be sure to come support the ballet this June, as we present _Spartacus_.”

Otabek started to go back to his seat, but Yuri caught his arm. Once the curtain had closed completely, he dropped character and walked up to Lilia. “Well?”

“Otabek is skating and you did very well. I spoke to Otabek’s coach. We’ll be on the same flights, staying at the same hotel. Behave yourself. Remember that Otabek, when he’s skating, is a national hero and a role model.”

Yuri hugged Lilia. “Thank you!” He turned to Otabek and hugged him, too. “This is going to be awesome.”

 

Everyone stared at Otabek when he walked in with his coach, Yuri, and Lilia. Lilia wasn’t surprised at all. “In addition to you walking in with people other than your coach, there's me. You’ll probably hear about this soon anyway. My ex-husband is here, and when we were married, I choreographed a lot of routines for his skaters. Some of the coaches who have been around a while probably recognize me.”

Otabek’s jaw dropped. “Wait a minute. You’re Yakov Feltsman’s ex-wife.”

Lilia’s eyebrows shot up. “You knew that?”

“I'd nearly forgotten, but we’ve met before. You probably don’t remember me. I went to a skating camp run by Yakov. Right before you two divorced. You ran the ballet side of the camp that year.”

Lilia looked blank, but after a minute, she started laughing. “I remember now. The young Kazakh boy who it took me five minutes to figure out would never make it in ballet. You started too old.” She put a hand on Yuri’s shoulder. “Do you remember the youngest boy in your class?”

“I never caught his name, but yes, I remember him. He wasn’t even a skater, he was a danseur. I got the impression he was there just because you were. I’ve always wondered whatever happened to him." Otabek smiled softly at the memory. That kid had been his inspiration for years. "He had the eyes of a soldier. I can’t believe he’s anything less than a star-in-waiting somewhere.”

“He is. He’s still in school, for now, but he should be breaking into a professional troupe this summer.” She shook her head. “You really don’t know his name?”

“No, I kept to myself and aside from staring at him when I could get away with it, we never interacted at all. I'm sure I heard it when you were yelling at him for something, but I don't remember.”

“His name is Yuri Plisetsky.”

“THAT WAS YOU?” Yuri stared at Otabek, arms crossed. “The weirdo skater who everyone kept telling me was going to either be my stalker or my husband someday, that was you?”

“Apparently?" Otabek wished desperately that he'd gotten the kid's name back then. This looked awful, he had to admit. "I swear, I didn’t ever get your name, I was not stalking you when I moved to America for skating and ended up at your school.”

“You introduced yourself to me by showing me a cat video!”

“And I was scared to death that you would think I was a giant dork and want nothing to do with me!”

Yuri dropped the pissed-off look and threw himself into Otabek’s arms. “I love you. Promise me you won’t turn into a stalker?”

“Was that a proposal?”

Otabek and Yuri turned to see JJ. Otabek closed his eyes. This was not going to be pretty. “Yuri, this is JJ LeRoy. Who, I promise, does not actually deserve the kicking I know you’re dying to give him. JJ, this is Yuri Plisetsky.”

“You found yourself an adorable little kitten! How sweet.” JJ held a hand out to Yuri, who hissed and ignored it. JJ let his hand drop. “So? Was that a proposal? If the choices are stalker and husband and you don’t want the stalker…”

“That was not a proposal, you asshole,” Yuri snarled.

“Shame. I’d like to see Beks find himself some happiness.”

Otabek put an arm around Yuri’s back. “I can be happy without being ready to make marriage plans, JJ. I take it you and Isabella are engaged?”

“Yes, we are!”

“Good for you. How long have you two been together?”

“About six months. But we were friends forever before that, so we both feel like we know what we need to know about each other.”

And JJ was missing the point. Of course he was. “Congratulations. Come on, Yuri. Let’s get you out of here before you get into a fight.”

 

Before both programs, Yuri shouted “Davai!” to Otabek. Otabek responded with a thumbs-up to Yuri. He hadn’t expected to medal here, but he did, managing to beat out JJ and Christophe for bronze. He expected the press conference to ignore him in favor of Katsuki and Viktor, gold and silver medalists, soon-to-be husbands, skater and coach. It was the kind of story that only happened once in a career.

Instead, the first question was directed at him. “Since you arrived, you’ve been nearly inseparable from a young man. Who is that?”

“His name is Yuri Plisetsky, and he’s my boyfriend.”

“You’re gay?”

“My sexuality is no one else’s business but mine. I have a boyfriend.”

“So you’re gay.”

Otabek just glared. From the corner of his eye, he could see Yuri with a hand over his mouth trying not to laugh, and it somewhat ruined the effect as Otabek fought back the urge to smile.

“How do you think the people of Kazakhstan will feel about you having a boyfriend?”

“I have no doubt that some people will hate it. Some people will love it. I know I’m considered a role model, and I think it’s too important to model not changing yourself to fit others’ expectations to hide my boyfriend for other people’s comfort.”

They moved on then, spending the rest of the press conference talking to Yuuri and Viktor. Once it was over, Otabek walked up to Yuri. "You mad at them, too?"

"Nah. I'm more interested in you than in their shit, but fine, most people are more interested in their shit. I get to talk to you all the time, anyway."


End file.
